Candace Jennings was sleeping on the couch when she was nudged awake by her dog, Anna, to find her mobile home engulfed in flames early Thanksgiving Day. The blond heeler, an abused stray dog Jennings had adopted from an animal shelter, whined and howled until they ran outside.

“I had an awful headache. The place was filled with smoke,” she told the Idaho Statesman for a story published Saturday.

But Jennings said she ran back into her burning home to save some items.

“I’m a janitor in town,” she said. “I had everyone’s keys in my backpack. I had to go back and get them.”

She crawled back into her burning home in Idaho City, about 40 miles northeast of Boise, with Anna close at her side.

But Jennings said she became disoriented and was nearly overcome by smoke. She tried to get back out but crawled in the wrong direction, heading toward the pantry instead of the door.

Anna showed her the way out.

“She pushed on me; she nudged me out the door,” Jennings said.

The roof collapsed as Jennings, barefoot and wearing only pajamas, ran to some trees in the 15-degree weather. Jennings suffered burns to her feet and then frostbite. Anna and two other dogs Jennings has were not injured.

“She’s a hero,” said Jennings, an artist who has lived in the mountain town since 1975.